


Frozen Not Forgotten

by sanva



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU: Avengers, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Howard finds Bucky First, M/M, Post-Captain America: The First Avenger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 19:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3990688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanva/pseuds/sanva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every year the during the warmest months of the year Stark Foundation sends out two expeditions. Each year they come up empty . . . until they don't.</p><p>Neither HYDRA nor the Russians find James Barnes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Frozen Not Forgotten

**Author's Note:**

> I had the afternoon off so I wanted to get some writing in but my muse for my existing stories is still wavering, but I found a random bunny on the stevebucky-fest on Dreamwidth and adapted it. The original bunny can be found in the end notes to avoid spoilers. I didn't follow it exactly for reasons, but it definitely inspired this.
> 
> This is unbeta-ed so you may notice a change on occasion if I flip through and notice a typo or plot hole as I occasionally do and fix it.

Every year during the warmest months of the year the Stark Foundation sends out an expedition to the Arctic Ocean, attempting to find the greatest hero an entire generation had ever had. It was a footnote in the history books and a full page in the Stark Foundation newsletter every year. 

World War two historians kept an ear out for the results of the investigation every year. An intern was chosen yearly from a long list of applicants—who also received a small scholarship—to document and film the search. Each one hoped that their year would result in the longest running documentary the world may ever see.

Each year they come up empty.

Every year, during the warmest months of the year the Stark foundation sends out an expedition along a river in the Alps, searching for the remains of a lost hero. It’s barely a footnote in the yearly Stark Foundation newsletter. The conditions are harsh, the terrain difficult to maneuver. Most of the time those involved are more thrill seekers than historians, seeing the search and climb as a challenge. They carry recording equipment, cameras, sure, but no one is actively doing more than taking a few shots, images of the climb, beautiful sun rises and sunsets.

They are professionals though, keeping to the mission as best they can and mapping every inch of the terrain in the process. It’s a small group, mostly men but the occasional woman. One notable year in the mid-fifties Peggy Carter joins the group along with her close friend, Angie Martinelli a Broadway actress. Nearly every year one of the Howling Commandos is present until age begins to catch up with them. 

Each year they come up empty . . . until the year they don’t.

 

 

It was the late seventies when it happened. Technology had made great advancements and an intern at the Stark Foundation used a new program and the mission reports from Captain Rogers and the other Howling Commandos to triangulate a set of coordinates.

The coordinates aren’t exact, but they’re close enough. The high tech equipment, metal detectors and the like, get a read on something.

They found an arm.

Two days later after calling in specialized equipment, Howard Stark himself, and a helicopter they find the body.

It’s frozen in a block of ice, remarkably well preserved. Howard settled his hand on the ice above the blue jacket he’d designed and stared. The anthropologist he’d hired convinced them to extract the body in a sheath of ice to preserve the remains for transportation. It takes some organizing but with the Stark name anything can be accomplished.

He called in the best experts in the field, wanting to be able to provide the Barnes family—Bucky’s sister and her children—a true funeral according to their beliefs, including a viewing.

The experts were optimistic about thawing the body. They initiated the process at a SHIELD facility in France, a small base with a specialized lab that Stark had built in record time.

The body of Bucky Barnes was kept in a temperature controlled freezer for four months before they brought it out and began to thaw it.

Thirty eight hours into the process, in the middle of the night, while an intern stepped out to fill his coffee as the leading scientists are going over the readings the next room, the body of Bucky Barnes, gasped awake and screamed.

 

 

“Alive?” Rebecca gasped hand coming up to cover her mouth as she choked out a sob. “How—” She broke down, both hands covering her face.

Her eldest son, Richard, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and stared at Howard Stark. He’d flown to France with his mother to be there during the thawing process. “You’re saying my Uncle is alive?”

“I know it’s hard to believe,” Howard told them, leaning forward, “but we think when he was captured in ’43 Zola did something to him that helped him . . . allowed him to survive the fall and enabled him to go in a sort of stasis when he froze.”

“Bucky’s alive?” Rebecca dropped her hands from her face and clenched them in her lap. Her eyes were bloodshot from the crying she’d done. The last few days of waiting, even before this announcement, had been rough on her. She had been determined to see the process through. She wasn’t the only one.

Peggy Carter and all of the Howling Commandos—with the exception of Gabe Jones whose wife was undergoing a delicate surgery—were at the base in order to pay their respects and had been planning to escort the body home to US soil.

Those plans were changing.

“I’m not going to lie to you, Mrs. Proctor,” Dr. Laurent, a specialist from Paris who had been called in the moment they realized Bucky was alive, told her. “He is alive but incredibly injured. Whatever was done that helped him survive the fall and being frozen does appear to be healing him as well, but he is in a lot of pain. He is critical but stable.”

“But he’s alive.”

“Yes. Very much so, for now, and as you are his next of kin we need you to make some very important decisions about what we are to do next.” 

“His next of kin,” Rebecca sobbed. “All his paper work listed Steve—” She pursed her lips together and her son took her hands in his. “He’s going to be so upset.”

“We found Bucky,” Howard leans forward, voice full of passion and surety. “We found him and we’re going to find Steve.”

He didn’t have to say what most everyone was now thinking.

If Bucky survived due to some knock of serum experiment Zola had been working—Zola who was now going under a round of questioning by Peggy’s most trusted agents even though he was on his death bed—then Steve with a version of the serum that had so drastically changed him was could be in a similar state himself.

They had to find him. Howard wasn’t going to stop looking until they did.

 

 

The first thing Bucky asked when he wakes up and is coherent for the first time, the steady stream of pain killers and other drugs to keep him in an induced medical coma having been tapered off, was where he was. The on duty nurse explained calmly, checking his vitals that he was at hospital on a base in France, before calling in the doctor and then his sister.

He doesn’t recognize her. He doesn’t even recognize her name.

She cries and he cries for her, confusion and pain clouding in his mind as she grasped his hand tightly.

They told him his name, James Buchanan Barnes, which he barely recognizes. A tale is woven that seemed impossible and caused his brain to ache.

A rush of faces pass by him, each introduced as an old friend, as people come into his room over the course of several days. His body healed quickly after he awoke and with the exception of his missing arm he was back to full health in less than a month. In arguably better health than he had ever been before the war even.

His sister took him home to their old family house in Brooklyn and for a few weeks he stayed with her and her family. It doesn’t last, can’t as nothing feels right. Something is missing and Bucky, or James as most people had taken to calling him as he flinched at ‘Bucky’ more often than not, is unable to recall more than fragments of memories.

It was difficult, rebuilding a relationship with his family. Especially when he he’s physically about the same age as his nephew and nieces. He does it, a bit out of obligation, but also out of love. The emotions are easy, the details and memories associated with them are unclear. 

James Barnes moved out of his family home six weeks after returning, unable to take the looks from the neighbors that once knew him. 

He took up Howard Starks offer to work for him. It had been an offer originally proposed during the war, months before he fell. Bucky Barnes had been good with machines and math. While his memories were fragmented and missing—James Barnes still had those gifts as well.

 

 

He picked things of quickly—either aided by the serum or just due to inherent talent he doesn’t know and maybe will never be sure of—and helped Stark design what will become one of the greatest advancements in prosthetics on the market. 

His presence helps keep Stark Industries from becoming entirely focused on weapons manufacturing. Nearly every year a new prototype makes its way onto his person, until one particular design in the early nineties, made with a Vibranium alloy Howard had somehow talked his contacts in Wakanda out of for a hefty price, is grafted to his body, a true marvel of technological development it worked in conjunction with his nerves allowing his brain to control it.

Howard’s son, Tony, helped James design it based on designs his father had been working on before his death. 

James is Tony’s godfather; he was there for the birth of Howard’s son, only a few short years after they pulled him from the ice. He had been staying with the Starks in a guest room more often than not. It was a place he felt at home unlike the home he had grown up in. He still spent time with his sister and her family, but the idea of staying in that home long term, a place that caused his brain to ache and brought black flashes and the feeling of missing . . . he couldn’t. It just wasn’t something he could do on a regular basis.

He knew who Steve was, there was a picture of him on the book shelf in the suite he’d made his home in the Stark mansion. He had flashes of memories involving him regularly. James looked at his photo every night before bed for as long as he could stand it, trying desperately to remember the man that everyone said meant so much to him. A man who had gone on rampage after his death to destroy HYDRA.

There were flits of memory, sometimes more confusing than helpful. 

It took him decades, could probably have taken less time but he couldn’t stand the discussions he had with the therapists people kept convincing him to go to, but James thought he had most of his memories back. At least the important ones. Mostly.

Around him everyone grew and changed and James felt left out. He watched the baby who he’d helped deliver when Maria Stark had gone into an early, quick labor while Howard was on a business trip grow into a strong capable business leader—if a party animal and a playboy.

He supported him after Howard’s death, mourned with him and Tony helped him mourn the death of his sister a decade later and the passing of most of the Howling Commandos.

 

 

The existence of James Buchanan Barnes as a living, breathing man is a loosely kept secret. The people he knew in Brooklyn and his family keep the fact that he’s alive a secret. The Stark Foundation stopped printing news of the search for the body of James Barnes, but then it had never been the focal point of its yearly newsletter. Very few people took note of this, a few historians but that was it.

The search for the Valkyrie and the body of Captain America continued each year during the warmest months. Salvage ships were sent out by Stark Industries with a history or anthropology intern employed by the Stark Foundation in the form of a more than adequate scholarship goes with them each year to document the search.

Historians still checked the news every summer hopeful of good news. The difference is the Stark Foundation, using the data gathered from the recovery of James Barnes had a plan on how to revive their fallen hero should they find him.

James Barnes joined the search annually starting the year—partially out of obligation and partly searching for something to fill in the gaps—after he was found until Howard and Maria’s death. After their death he had to make a choice and make a choice he did to stay with Tony.

Things weren’t perfect, but they were a family. Tony was more of a family to him than his own flesh and blood. He felt more comfortable with younger Stark than staring into the aging faces of his blood relatives.

James Barnes wasn’t aging. He hadn’t gained a single grey hair or wrinkle since he’d come out of the ice.

He was watching everyone around him age and pass on. Even Tony eventually caught up with and surpassed him. When that happened Tony helped him get drunk for the first time since the forties.

He did keep up to date with information on the mission Howard started; the search for the one person who could hopefully fill in the few gaps he still had in his mind. The one person who might be in the same situation he was. It was selfish for although he felt the gap and ached for what was missing, his brain couldn’t connect all the dots in regards to Steve Rogers.

But he did know that Steve hadn’t given up on him so he wouldn’t give up on Steve.

And he didn’t. The Stark Foundation didn’t either, but even the best laid plans couldn’t account for everything.

 

 

In 2009 Tony became Ironman and Stark Industries finances took a drastic hit. While they didn’t collapse, the funding that was normally put into projects like the yearly excursion to the Arctic Ocean lessened to a trickle. Other sponsors were approached.

SHIELD filled in the gaps for the Arctic expedition.

The yearly expedition during the warmest months of the year continued on into the Arctic Ocean and people still waited eagerly every summer for any news. The intern employed by the Stark Foundation was replaced by newly recruited SHIELD agents, analysts mostly.

So when the expedition finally located the Valkyrie two years later it wasn’t the Stark Foundation that got called first, but Director Nick Fury of SHIELD. It wasn’t an intricately prepared hospital in New York that revives the Captain but startled and confused Shield scientists that had been preparing to gather data from the body of the only known super soldier in existence.

James Barnes wasn’t there to greet his oldest friend for Howard Stark, the rest of the commandos, the Barnes family and their tight knit neighborhood had managed to keep his existence a loose secret. SHIELD was very good at compartmentalization and had even managed to keep his existence a secret from the generation of agents that followed Director Carter’s retirement.

There was no tale of discovery, no documentary to be aired, as SHIELD locked everything down. Classifying it and keeping it from the organization that had previously provided all of the funding for the search. So no one but SHIELD therapists and agents was there to help Steve Rogers adjust to a new world.

Historians were once again disappointed at the lack of news and went back to other projects and teaching classes, prepared to wait another year.

 

 

Perhaps Tony should have called James. He’d feel bad about it later, when he wasn’t in the middle of fighting a horde of aliens and an insane demi-god. After that Tony would also chew out Fury. It has been the expedition that his father funded for decades that SHIELD had co-opted to bring the capsicle into this century and he wasn’t even notified!

He couldn’t believe this was the guy his dad had been obsessed with and whose picture James stared at daily, trying to recover more memories.

That could wait, though, hopefully. Right now there were more important things to be done.

Besides, James had been in California working on a new project in the prosthetics lab and wasn’t due back until Monday.

“Stark you’ve got incoming!” The Captain’s voice rang through the coms and Tony cursed under his breath.

“Sir, might I suggest swinging past the ninety-second floor?” JARVIS advised politely, the HUD projecting a route for him to take.

“What are you thinking, JARVIS?” Tony narrowed his eyes, already taking his AI’s advice.

“James has requisitioned Miranda from storage has taken advantage of several damaged floors to assist in the battle.”

“Miranda you say,” Tony mused over the prototype high powered rifle that packed an energy enhanced punch. “Since when is James in town?”

“I took the liberty of contacting him after Agent Coulson visited,” JARVIS explained. “He took the first available flight to New York.”

“Good idea.” Tony quirked a grin as he flew past the window, JARVIS zooming in on James, He was taking cover among the wreckage of several destroyed rooms and boy was the tower going to be in need of some remodeling. They’d just finished those floors a less than a month ago, too. “Wait, did you tell him?”

“I thought it would be best to allow you to do so.”

“How thoughtful of you.”

“Tony!”

“I’m covered, Cap.”

Covered he was as a half dozen shots rang out, hitting their marks and then exploding upon impact in an arc of energy.

“JARVIS are you taking notes?”

“I am, sir. The rounds are a little under powered compared to what we hoped they would be, but have caused extensive damage.”

“Route the data into the private server in the lab and CC it to James’ computer. Do you have a good read on the—“

“Indeed. I assume we’ll have quite a bit more data by the end of this fight as well.”

Tony may have stopped making weapons for the military, but he and James were still making contingency plans and designing weapons to build into the Ironman suit. This was one design that James couldn’t help but co-opt for his own use. His godfather was his back up, rarely used, but still available when necessary.

Moments later he was distracted by the battle and an incoming nuke.

The nuke was very distracting, so distracting that going up the tower Tony completely overlooked preparing Captain America for the existence of a living breathing James Buchanan Barnes on the way to bring Loki into custody. Even if he had thought to do so, looking back on things he wouldn’t have any idea on how to bring it up.

So while Thor was securing Loki to keep him from escaping and James walked into the room, Miranda slung over his back wearing the body armor he’d designed to protect not only against bullets but the energy Ironman suit’s repulsors could put out Tony didn’t know quite what to say. JARVIS’ voice in his ear advised him against any of his usual witty repertoire.

 

 

“I’m gone for a few days and the security in this place goes to shit,” James called out as he entered the room. He’d had to knock out half his security force earlier and the other half just hadn’t been there. According to what he could make out they’d been told to take the day off or been outright fired by human resources. This was going to be a mess to clean up.

“It’s not like you trained them for mind controlling demi-gods,” Tony points out, but James barely registered it.

He’s too focused on the man standing in the middle of the room dressed up in a splash of patriotic colors and for brief moment fury seers through James’ veins before disappearing into shock.

A man is dressed up as Captain America. A man that is clearly Steve Rogers. James recognizes him from the photo he keeps on his shelf and the smaller one in his wallet. It’s an image, a reminder; he looks at every single day.

Because even though his mind is still riddled with gaps and Steve Rogers is a subject that encompasses the majority of them, he would recognize that man anywhere.

“Bucky?” Steve’s voice is so full of emotion and James let it seep into his very being.

He took in the image of his friend as a familiar shield is dropped, pinging against the marble floor, and the man strides toward him, pausing just feet away. James just stared, taking in every minute detail and suddenly everything about the man before him is so much clearer than it’d ever been before.

The emotion the man’s presence brings out of him is so strong and full of depth. There’s an ache in his head that normally would give him cause to rest but this time he ignored it. If there was ever a time to fight through the pain it was right now. This man was bringing back things he didn’t even know he’d forgotten.

“Hey, Stevie,” Bucky slung Miranda off his back and let it settle onto the floor, opening his arms. “Yeah, it’s me.”

“God, Bucky,” Steve crashed forward into him, arms wrapping around his middle. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

Bucky’s eyes fell shut and he pressed his nose into Steve’s neck, tightening his hands into Steve’s uniform. 

“Hey punk,” he murmured, taking in the base scent that was home beneath the dirt, smoke, and copper scent of battle.

“Jerk,” Steve pulled back, eyes bright and shining with unshed tears. “I thought you were dead.”

Bucky’s lips slanted into a lopsided grin. “I thought you were smaller.”

A laugh puffed out of Steve’s lips and a smile brightened on his face. He reached up and framed Bucky’s face with his hands before leaning forward and capturing his lips.

For the first time in nearly forty years James Buchanan Barnes knew exactly what he’d been missing. His metal fingers tightened in the fabric, not quite ripping it as his flesh hand moved up to slide through Steve’s hair.

He remembered everything now and was going to do everything in his power to hold onto those memories for no matter how much pain there was something much more important behind it—love.

 

 

Every year for nearly seventy years during the warmest months of the year the Stark Foundation sent an expedition to the Arctic Ocean looking for a hero of an age gone by. Every year World War II historians waited with baited breath for any indication that the search had been successful.

Exactly seventy years after the first expedition a wedding announcement appears in place of the annual report of the lack of news from the expedition forces. The next day JARVIS compiles a list of the more entertaining reactions from social media and the major news networks for Tony to peruse.

A week after that a lucky family takes a picture with Captain America and the Winter Soldier—as the news has taken to calling him thanks to an article in the Daily Bugle—on their honey moon hiking at the Grand Canyon.

**Author's Note:**

> Original Bunny: "Even though Howard spent years looking for Steve, he also goes on a search for Bucky's remains to put him to rest.
> 
> What Howard doesn't expect is to find the sniper, frozen but alive. In taking care of Bucky, he realizes besides losing an arm, his memory is just about gone. So he does the best he can do to do good on Steve's memory and take care of Bucky. He accepts him into the family, and gives him a new arm, and in return, Bucky is more or less a loyal friend/guard dog.
> 
> Fast Forward to the battle of New York and Tony's in a bind with the Chituari, Steve can see this but is to far away when suddenly someone jumps off a building and takes the alien down.
> 
> Steve finds out it's Bucky and feelings happen. Tony's confused as to why his closet friend and care giver is being hugged to death by the leader of the team. 
> 
> Make it cute, make it mushy. Its still gonna be Bucky/Steve end game :)"
> 
> I hope the bunny provider doesn't mind too much the changes I made . . . I couldn't see Tony being oblivious on who Bucky was and there's only a bit of mush at the end.
> 
> Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this!


End file.
